Fading Shadows
by Anna-Mae1242
Summary: After a tragic event in Embers childhood, she was never quite the same. But with amazing friends and family she was able to move on as best as possible. Life was going great, that was, until Equestria was threatened, with war. With the help of her friends though, maybe someday things will go back to how they were. (An alternate ending to FIM, next generation)


**This story is a very mild T mostly for some vioence that will be later in the story. There will be no swearing or anything of that sort. I'm 13 what do you think I can do? Welp onto the story!**

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_Ember backed into the corner of the room she was currently standing in. It was dark, small, and empty but Ember knew it wouldn't stay like that for long. And she was right, as it did every time,_ _the room burst into flames._

_The flames slowly crept towards Ember, and_ _she attempted to move further back into the room. No doors, no windows, absolutely no exits at all. There was no escape, she knew it would be like that though. It always had been,_ _and always would be._

_The flames continued to creep up on Ember in their never-ending pursuit of her. She knew the fire would reach her soon but she still tried to get away nonetheless. It wasn't long before the flames began to lick at her legs, they would consume her soon._

_She tried to scream, but nothing escaped. Fear gipped at her and the fire began to crawl further up her legs, stinging skin as it went. There was no way out. She was trapped, she couldn't_ _scream_ _nopony_ _was going to come to help her. _

_The smell of burning_ _flesh reached Embers nose she knew it was her own._ _The skin on her legs began to burn away slowly bringing tears to her eyes._ _Her legs were left a bloody and charred mess and she knew, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Absolutely nothing anyone could do about it._

_So she waited, waited for it all to end._

Ember woke in a cold sweat, her mane sticking to her forehead. This needed to stop but there was nothing she could do about it. Ember glanced slowly over to her clock 5:32 it read. Early enough to get up she supposed.

The halls of Twilight's castle were still dark. Deserted, other than the occasional guard stationed inside the building, but that was how she liked it. The orange pegasus mare made her way through the hallways as quietly as possible, which wasn't very quiet considering the fact that her front leg was a chunk of metal.

Though it would normally be considered weird for a seventeen-year-old to willingly be up at 5:32 on a weekend, but not a pony (or dragon) in this household questioned it. Since she couldn't think of anything else to do Ember ultimately decided that she should just go eat some breakfast.

After a bit of walking Ember made it to the kitchen, it always took a bit to get places in the castle due to its huge size. The mare pulled out a bowl and began to pour herself some cereal. She enjoyed the silence as she ate. It was just about never quite in the castle so she knew she wouldn't be able to enjoy it for long.

Only seconds later Ember was proved right by a voice speaking out from behind her, "Hey Ember whatcha doing here"

Ember jumped and turned to see a blue unicorn stallion staring down at her, "I live here," Ember stated, "What the heck are _you _doing here Aqua?"

Aqua shrugged, "I'm on guard duty and saw you walking around and stuff. You looked kinda worried or something so it thought I'd come see if you were ok," Aqua looked at Ember waiting for some kind of response

Ember smiled, Aqua was her childhood friend and he always knew when something was wrong. She didn't want to bother Aqua, so her response wasn't exactly truthful "I'm fine, but thanks for asking anyways."

Aqua sighed, Ember was _really _bad at lying, he sat down next to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder, "It's the nightmares again isn't it? You know you can talk to me."

"How do you always know," Ember responded quietly as Aqua stared at her.

"Best friends know everything, right?"

Ember grinned, "Right."

"But honestly is there anything I can do for you? The nightmares are getting worse, aren't they?" Aqua responded returning to the topic on hoof.

Nodding solemnly Ember responded, "It's been so long since the accident, you'd think that they would start to get better, but its been worse lately," Ember began to rub her head, "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Aqua wrapped one of his front hooves around Ember, "Nothings wrong with you."

They sat like that for a while neither one speaking a word, until Aqua decided to change the subject, he knew Ember wouldn't want to talk about this for long, "So," he began. "I haven't seen your parents around today, where are they."

"Somethings going on the Crystal Empire, mom was called over to help aunt Cadence deal with it while Shining Armor is away, dad came with."

Aqua scratched his head and spoke, "That's weird, Flash doesn't normally like to leave all the newbies for long."

Ember shrugged and said, "There's been an attack or something by those weird shadow ponies again. Him and Shinning Armor took some of their best guards to check it out. Whoever second highest ranking here will be in charge for now. My parents left late last night so you'll be given orders when you guys meet up today."

All color drained from the blue stallion's face, "Oh no," he muttered quietly.

"Uhhh," Ember raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong Aqua?"

"Do you know who's in charge when your dads gone?"

"Not necessarily, who?"

"Stormy.

"Oh... welp your dead."

Aqua buried his head in his hooves. "You don't think I already know that! That dude hates my guts! I swear he's got it out for me!"

Ember stifled a giggle, "That's probably because of that one time when..."

Aqua's eyes widened as he covered Embers mouth, "We do not speak of that

"Of course not."

The two friends fell into fits of laughter, Ember looked over and smiled at Aqua, "Hey, thanks for cheering me up, I really needed it."

"Any time Em, hey you wanna go get some hay burgers or something?

"Why the heck wouldn't I?"

Aqua shrugged, "Valid I guess, let's go then."

Hopping up from her chair Ember began to run out of the kitchen, he mechanical leg thumping as she went, "Common slowpoke! Race you there," she called back to Aqua.

"Oh, you're on!"

And with that the two friends left, both Ember's cereal and Aqua's guard duty forgotten. It was an odd pair really, Equestria's youngest qualified guard and Equestria's only cyborg, who was nonetheless Twilight Sparkles daughter. But, friendships can be found in the oddest of places, and those two had a bond that would not be easily broken.

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**A/N:**

**Since MLP FIM has now ended *tear drop* I've decided to attempt this story one last time because I can make it as accurate as possible to what happened at the end of FIM. Think of this as kind of an alternate version of how that epilogue could have ended. I think I'll have aspects from it, but not all of them. This is the fourth attempt at this story and if it doesn't work out, I will probably abandon it, but I've got to give it at least one more shot first.**

**Please drop a review! Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.**

**Bye for now**

** Anna-Mae1242**


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